Apparatus for transferring highly viscous material

ABSTRACT

Transfer of highly viscous material can be effected easily by the use of a simple-structured transferring apparatus comprising: a tubular casing having a closed top, a feed introduction port of an inverted funnel shape formed integrally at the bottom of said casing and a delivery outlet formed through the upper side wall of said casing; a rotatable shaft extending through said casing beyond both ends thereof; at least one raking vane fixed to said shaft at a position slightly beyond the end edge of said port and having a curved and twisted face; a helical guide vane fixed to said shaft in said funnel-shaped port at a position close to and above said raking vane; and a continuous helical feed vane provided on said shaft and joining said guide vane and extending along the shaft in said casing up to a position close to said closed top.

United States Patent 1 1 Watanabe I 1 Mar. 27, 1973 [54] APPARATUS FORTRANSFERRING HIGHLY VISCOUS MATERIAL [76] Inventor: Makoto Watanabe,1070-4, Oaza- Shiba, Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan 22 Filed: Mar. 17, 197121 Appl. No.; 125,199

1521 Us, Cl ..41s/72 [51] ....F0ld 5/00 [58] Field of Search ..415/72[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,778,589 10 1930 Eerkes";..415 72 1,519,664 12/1924 Campbell ..4l5/72 2,045,757 6/1936Constantin... .....4l5/72 3,173,584 3/1965 Giauasis ..4i5/72 PrimaryExaminerC. .l. Husar Attorney-Linton & Linton [57] ABSTRACT Transfer ofhighly viscous material can be effected easily by the use of asimple-structured transferring apparatus comprising: a tubular casinghaving a closed top, a feed introduction port of an inverted funnelshape'formed integrally at the bottom of said casing and a deliveryoutlet formed through the upper side wall of said casing; a rotatableshaft extending through said casing beyond both ends thereof; at leastone raking vane fixed to said shaft at a position slightly beyond theend edge of said port and having a curved and twisted face; a helicalguide vane fixed to said shaft in said funnel-shaped port at a positionclose to and above said raking vane; and a continuous helical feed vaneprovided on said shaft and joining said guide vane and extending alongthe shaft in said casing up to a position close to said closed top.

1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEUHARNIM FIG.

FIG. 2

INVENTOR. MAKOTo W/ITANABE QQZ ATTORNEYS APPARATUS FOR TRANSFERRINGHIGHLY VISCOUS MATERIAL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION more particularly,it relates to an apparatus for transferring highly viscous material.

b. Description of the Prior Art Known apparatuses for transferringviscous materials include those which are of the vacuum type and those'of the external pressure type. The vacuum type transthe tank from, forexample, above thereof so that this pressure is transmitted to the inletof the tank. These conventional transferring apparatuses, however, hadthe drawbacks that they required a large size and that the operation wascomplicated, and that, nevertheless, the result obtained was far from.being satisfactory or from what was expected or desired to be.

It was impossible in the part to materialize continuous transfer by theuse of these transferring apparatuses of the prior art of unusuallyhighly viscous fluid materials of non-Newtonian flow property, such asprinting ink, resins and those materials of particularly high viscositywhich are used in chemical as well as food industries, or morespecifically, those materials having a viscosity of 2,000 poise or more.Thus, materials of especially high viscosity could not be transferredcontinuously by the use of a known suction pump or vacuum pump howevergreat its suction force might be unless the material was forced into thesuction inlet by the application of an additional external force ontothe inlet side, even when the suction pump was actuated continuously.

If a highly viscous material was sucked by utilizing only the vacuumforce provided by the pump without the aforesaid application of anexternal pressure in a direction opposite to the suction force, theviscous material tended to be disintegrated into divided pieces andcould not be sucked as a continuous body into the inlet, however highthe degree of vacuum caused by the suction pump might be. Thus, thesuction pump failed to attain its primary object. Accordingly, one wasobliged to invert the container, though depending on its configurationand condition, or to divide the material into pieces of an appropriatesize to. handle them as if they were solid pieces. Thus, the operationundesirably tended to become low in efficiency.

It has so far been quite difficult to satisfactorily accomplish smoothtransfer of highly concentrated viscous suspension by relying on knowntransferring means such as conventional suction pump or the like.Therefore, the practice which has been adopted in the past in thisrespect was to convey a highly viscous material in its state of beingplaced in a container and to scoop up an appropriate amount like solidpieces of material by the use of an instrument comprising a helve of asubstantial length and a pallet-like scooping head secured to theforward end thereof and in such a manner that a portion of said helve isplaced on one side edge of the container frame so as to have this helveserve as a lever on said side edge which, in turn, functions as afulcrum, while utilizing the weight of the body of the operator toaccomplish this scooping. Thus, the producing process was that of a verylow efficiency and was far from being economical.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, therefore, an object of the presentinvention to eliminate the aforesaid drawbacks of the conventionalapparatuses for transferring highly viscous materials and to provide animproved apparatus intended for the similar purpose and free of suchdrawbacks.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improvedapparatus of the type described for transferring highly viscousmaterial, which is simple in structure and compact in size and whichprovides highly efficient operation.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improvedapparatus of the type described for transferring highly viscousmaterial, which utilizes the rotation of raking vanes, a helical guidevane and a helical continuous feed vane securely mounted on a commonrotatable shaft housed in a casing and which is operable underatmospheric pressure and which does not rely on vacuum or externalpressure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERREDEMBODIMENT In the drawings, there is shown an example of the apparatusstructure for transferring highly viscous material, which embodies thepresent invention.

Reference numeral 1 represents a rotatable shaft which is rotated from adriving means (not shown) after being reduced in the speed of rotation.Numeral 2 1 represents one of the pair of raking vanes fixed to saidrotatable shaft 1 at a position slightly below the edge of thefunnel-shaped port 4 which will be described later and each beingprovided with a curved and twisted face formed in the direction ofrotation. Numeral 3 represents a helical guide vane fixed to saidrotatable shaft 1 at a position immediately above said raking vanes 2.Numeral 4 represents an introduction port of an inverted funnel shapecovering said guide vane 3. Numeral 5 represents a helical andcontinuous feed vane fixed to the rotatable shaft 1, joining said guidevane 3 and extending upwardly along the shaft 1. Numeral 6 represents atubular casing covering the feed vanes 5. Numeral 7 represents a fluidblocking plate closing the top opening of the tubular casing. The

upper portion of said shaft 1 extends through this plate 7 'to becoupled to a driving means not shown. The free end of said helical feedvane 5 terminates close to the fluid blocking plate 7 comma adjacent thedelivery outlet 8. Numeral 9 represents a bearing provided about therotatable shaft on the upper face of the fluid blocking plate 7. Numeral10 represents a container, and numeral 11 represents a material to betransferred which is placed in said container 10.

Description will next be directed to the operation of the apparatushaving the aforesaid structure.

The apparatus of the present invention is inserted in the material 11 tobe transferred which is contained in the container 10. Thereafter, therotatable shaft 1 is rotated from a driving means not shown. whereupon,the raking vanes 2 start rotation and, along therewith, they begin torake the material 11 to be transfered. By virtue of the curved face ofeach raking vane 2, the material to be transferred is first raked towardthe base of the rakin'g vane 2. That portion of the material 11 whichhas been gathered to the central part below the bottom of the apparatusis then fed toward the introduction port a by the action of the twistedface of the raking vane 2. whereupon,- that portion of the material 11located in the area corresponding to the rotating raking vanes 2 isforced to form a hollow cylindrical shape, and thereupon, those portionsof the material 11 located thereabove tend to drop downwardly toward thebottom of the container 10 in accordance with Newtons law ofgravitation. Thus, it becomes possible to effect continuous raking ofthe material 11 by the continuous rotation of the raking vanes 2. Thematerial 11 which has been gathered to the introduction port 4 is thenfed by the helical guide vanes 3 to the site at which the continuoushelical feed vanes 5 begin. Therefrom, the material 11 is forced totravel upwardly by the continuous helical feed vanes 5. This ascensionof the material 11 is blocked as it hits the fluid blocking plate 7.Accordingly, the material 11 is forced outside the tubular casing 6through the delivery outlet 8.

The total diameter of the raking vanes 2 can vary depending on theviscosity of the material 11. This diameter should increase with anincrease in the viscosity and should decrease in accordance with adecrease in the viscosity of of the material 11. It should be notedthat, as this apparatus is started, the material 1 1 having a lowviscosity tends to gather centrally. On the other hand,

the material 11 having a high viscosity tends to be scraped by theraking vanes 2 at the portions of the material 11 contacted by theraking vanes 2. These scraped portions of the material 11 are gatheredto the central bottom part of the apparatus by virtue of the curves andthetwists formed on the faces of these raking vanes 2.

As said portions of the material 11 to be transferred are gathered tosaid central part, the material will have a hollow cylindrical region insaid scraped or raked portions. Accordingly, the portions of thematerial 11 located adjacent and above said hollow portions will becausedto drop downwardly by their own gravity to fill the hollow area,thus entering into the range of operation of the raking vanes 2. Thus,the state of transfer of the material continues smoothly.

It should be understood also that the inner diameter of the tubularcasing 6 and that of the feed vanes 5 can be regulated depending on thespeed of the rotatable shaft 1. Therefore, the volume of the materialwhich is transferred can be controlled freely as desired. Furthermore,the raking vanes 2 can be replaced freely by those of the desired totaldiameter ranging from large to small diameters depending on theviscosity of the material to be transferred. A better effect'may be obtained from the rotatable shaft 1 rotating at a smaller speed ratherthan at a greater speed. Preferably, the speed of rotation is -150revolutions per minute.

The materials which are used during the blending of feed stocks ofprinting ink are provided usually in the forms such as a dense andviscous liquid, suspension of a low viscosity (a high concentration ofpowder in a solvent) and a viscous suspended paste. Rarely, they includepowder and molten materials. Of these materials having the foregoingforms, viscous liquids and suspensions of a low viscosity mostly maypermit layout by relying on known transferring means. However, this isalmost impossible with the highly concentrated viscous suspended paste.By the use of the apparatus of the present invention, however, it iseasy to accomplish the transfer of materials having a viscosity in therange of 2,000-l0,000 poise for which it has been impossible to' performlayout in the past. For example, it is possible to transfer suchmaterials asthe substance FD which is a diluent for printing ink, flashbase of printing ink and I gel compound which is an additive forprinting ink. Not only those substances relating to printing ink, butalso coal tar (100,000 poise), leaven (20,000 poise), putty (5,000poise), and other materials such as millet jelly can be transferredeasily also.

EXAMPLE 1 I An ultra-high dense and viscous material which is called FD(whose components consist of 40 percent by weight of white lead and 60percent by weight of resinous varnish, which is used as a diluent forprinting ink) having an apparent viscosity of 20,000 poise and a. yieldvalue of 10,000 dyn/cm at 25 C is transferred with no difficulty by theuse of the apparatus of the present invention.

EXAMPLE 2 EXAMPLE 3 A material which is a gel compound consisting of 100percent by weight of gelatinated resinous varnish and which is used asan additive for printing ink and which has an apparent viscosity of10,000 poise, a yield value.

of 5,000 dyn/cm and an elasticity of 10' at 25 C is transferred easilyby the use of the apparatus of the present invention.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for transferring a highly viscous shaft at a positionextending laterally of said conmaterial from a container, comprising: anopen top tainer and adjacent to, but externally of said port Contamel'the VISCOUS material, and laterally of said casing and having a curved atubular g P of extendmg vertlcally and twisted face for gathering saidviscous material colltamer and halvmg a closed a feed f 5 toward thebase of said raking vane as the latter is troductron port of an invertedfunnel shape providrotated; mg the bottom porno of Sam casmg and a ahelical guide vane fixed to said shaftwithin said delivery outlet formedthrough the side wall of said casing adjacent said top;

a driven rotatably shaft extending longitudinally of 10 and through saidcasing with the upper portion of said shaft rotatably extending throughsaid closed top and the lower end of said shaft extending externally ofsaid open port;

at least one raking vane fixed to the lower end of said casing at aposition close to and above said raking vane; and continuous helicalfeed vanes fixed to said shaft within said casing and joining said guidevane and v extending along said shaft to a position close to said closedtop.

1. An apparatus for transferring a highly viscous material from acontainer, comprising: an open top container for the viscous material, atubular casing capable of extending vertically of said container andhaving a closed top, a feed introduction port of an inverted funnelshape providing the bottom portion of said casing and a delivery outletformed through the side wall of said casing adjacent said top; a drivenrotatably shaft extending longitudinally of and through said casing withthe upper portion of said shaft rotatably extending through said closedtop and the lower end of said shaft extending externally of said openport; at least one raking vane fixed to the lower end of said shaft at aposition extending laterally of said container and adjacent to, butexternally of said port and laterally of said casing and having a curvedand twisted face for gathering said viscous material toward the base ofsaid raking vane as the latter is rotated; a helical guide vane fixed tosaid shaft within said casing at a position close to and above saidraking vane; and continuous helical feed vanes fixed to said shaftwithin said casing and joining said guide vane and extending along saidshaft to a position close to said closed top.